Gloucester Commission Forwards Request To Alter Zoning Ordinance

November 08, 2003|By MATHEW PAUST Daily Press

Gloucester County Planning Director Jay Scudder proved Thursday that a picture is worth more than a thousand words.

To show the Planning Commission the effect of housing density, Scudder projected an aerial photograph of Beaconsdale, a Newport News subdivision built with the same number of homes per acre that Gloucester's zoning ordinance now allows.

From the air, Beaconsdale resembled a geometric grid, its houses plotted next to each other in parallel rows across the tract.

Scudder then switched to a photo of a subdivision at Gloucester Point. This one, he explained, was designed with larger lots and more green areas between the buildings. It had the look of a fancy resort campus.

Soon after viewing the two photos, the commission agreed to forward a request to the Board of Supervisors to change the zoning ordinance to prevent dense subdivisions in Gloucester.

The commission had spent months chewing on the idea, asked to do so by the supervisors in the interest of controlling residential growth in a way that would preserve the county's rural atmosphere.

As recommended by the commission, the ordinance change would not be so severe as to scare off developers.

"It's a nice compromise," said Louise Theberge, who represents the Board of Supervisors on the commission. "We'd get a softer-looking development, with lower density, without cutting the legs off the developer."

Scudder emphasized that the restrictions would apply only to the part of the county served by public water and sewers. It's intended, he said, to allow options to developers, while encouraging them to cluster the homes.

Clustered developments allow more expansive green areas to be used in common by the residents, he explained.

The existing minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet would remain the same, Scudder said, but the number of buildings would be limited to two per acre after county and state rights of way and other land not suitable for building are deducted from the total.

As allowed now, the density amounts to an average of about 2.5 homes per acre. The new approach would cut that average to just fewer than two, he said.

Scudder said more flexibility would be allowed for land outside the area served by public utilities, land that's transferred among family members or for small subdivisions.

THE PROPOSAL

The minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet would remain the same, but the number of buildings would be limited to two per acre.

Mathew Paust can be reached at 804-642-1738 or by e-mail at mpaust@dailypress.com